


Marked

by astartelydianna



Series: Soulmark's of the Doctor and Rose [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 11:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6564112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astartelydianna/pseuds/astartelydianna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sort of AU wherein following the soulmark trope humans (and potentially other species) are born with their soulmates name or first words on their body. Rose had given up hope of understanding hers until she saw the Doctor looking at some circular symbols.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marked

**Author's Note:**

> I've never posted one of my Dr Who fics and I've never done a soulmark fic before either so this little bit of fun had to be done.

It was a normal evening on the Tardis, or not-evening since the Doctor always insisted that there was no morning or night in the time vortex. They had eaten a pile of cheese and ham toasties for tea and were now killing time, before Rose would go to bed for a few hours. She used to sleep for seven to ten hours a night. Now she got five. The Doctor got bored when she slept longer than that and ended up waking her to show her something or somewhere. It wasn’t that bad anymore, she had gotten used to it quickly, she could always nap again after whatever adventure they got into after all.

As Rose crossed the console room, she froze. Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. The Doctor leant forward over a book, she turned to look closer.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing to the symbols on the page in front of him.

"It's a book Rose." He replied smugly, rolling his eyes.

"Doctor, the symbols, what are the symbols?" She asked, ignoring his teasing. He stopped and looked up at her bewildered expression.

"It's a language, a language no longer used." He said in a tense voice. "What's the matter Rose?"

"But it's alien yeah?" She asked, her finger tapping against the page.

"Yeah."

"Can you read it?" She asked, before glancing towards the console. "Why doesn't the Tardis translate it like everything else?"

"Of course I can read it, it's the language of my people, the language of the Timelords. The Tardis doesn't translate it because it's native." He explained. 

"Those symbols, they're your language?" She asked again, frowning as she looked at them closer. “But they look different to the ones that pop up on the Tardis screens.”

"Yes Rose, just like handwritten calligraphy looks different to arial in bold typed on a computer." He explained slowly.

"Get me a pen or a pencil." She said, once again ignoring the teasing tone in his voice, instead she began searching the console room quickly. She wasn't surprised when the Doctor pulled a pencil out of his inner pocket followed by a piece of paper.

"You're starting to worry me Rose." He said, as she took them, all signs of his earlier teasing gone. Rose began to draw the symbol she had been seeing since she was a child, ingrained in her mind as clearly as her own name. 

"What does this mean?" She held up the paper for him to see. He took it from her fingers, his expression grave.

"Where did you see this?" He asked.

"What does it mean?" she pressed.

"It's...my name. My true name. Rose, my people don't tell each other their true names, to name something is to have power over it. This is important Rose, where did you see this?" He turned her to face him, gripping her shoulders slightly, the paper crumpling in his fingers.

"On me." She admitted quietly. "My...my mark...it’s on me."

He froze, staring at her in shock. He was more than twenty times her age, different species…it was impossible. Or at the very least extremely improbable. Rose…his Rose, knew his name…all this time. He couldn’t help the small sliver of hope that lit in his chest at the thought, silly at it was.

"Can you show me?" He asked.

"It's um...sort of private." She replied.

"Private? It's my name, I'm glad you consider it private because it’s not something I want just anyone knowing." He said rather shortly.

"No I mean it’s... oh whatever. Hold on, I'll be back." She sighed giving in. Her heart pounded as she made her way to her room. The Doctor's name was on her body. He was   
her soul mate. She had thought about asking him before; finding out if he knew what the symbols were but had decided that since the Tardis didn't translate the symbols and since she hadn't come across them so far, they were probably nonsense. Besides, you weren’t really supposed to your mark to anyone that wasn’t your soulmate; unless they were a close relative like a parent or maybe a doctor, if they were treating you in that area. She'd never been so glad to be wrong. Her doctor. Her soul mate. She tugged off her jeans, leaving her top half as it was and pulled a dressing gown around her, before heading back to the console room.

"Rose?" He squeaked out questioningly, when he saw her return in a dressing gown. She saw him try to avert his gaze, he made it clear that he wasn’t trying to look at her. She probably should have found it gentlemanly of him but in reality it was sort of disappointing and annoying. She’d been flirting with the man for months and he couldn’t even humor her with an assessing look? He opened his mouth and she knew instantly that he was going to make fun of her.

"Not a word." She told him, moving to sit on the jump seat. She carefully shifted the gown until she revealed the inside of her left thigh. "There. Happy?" 

Unable to look at anything but the symbols drawn across her skin, he moved closer. Kneeling in front of the seat to look closer. Rose’s breath caught as he leant so close to her skin, his fingers tracing the mark on her thigh. Did he honestly have no idea what he was doing?!

"My name." He breathed out. "That's my name."

"You do know what this is right?" She asked quietly, shivering at the feel of his breath.

"My people don't have them." He replied. "But I've met enough humans to know what they are."

"Your people don't have Soulmates?" she felt her stomach drop, he was her soulmate but she wasn’t his… Was fate truly that cruel to her? Not only giving her a soulmark that made no sense and had her wondering for years if she would ever meet her soulmate but then giving her a soulmate that would never be hers in return?

"We don't mate and have families, not how your kind do. It's a complicated story, maybe I'll tell you one day." He said, his fingers idly continuing to slowly trace the symbols.

"So how did I get yours?" she croaked out, trying not to let the despair filling her creep into her voice.

He swallowed and pulled back, moving away from her and focusing on the console instead.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that it's because I'm the last of the timelords. Our kind didn't mate and reproduce like yours did but since I'm the last one left, this body had to become compatible with another species. This body of mine is the most human that I have ever been, not on the outside, our kinds have always looked similar on the outside but on the inside. How I think and feel, it's grown more human with every regeneration, as if my own timeline knew that one day it would need to be compatible with another species to continue and bloodline at all. I never even thought to check for a mark, I've not spotted one so far mind. My kind doesn't have them; why would I have thought to check?" He was talking to himself more than her now, she could see his brain working. "That explains a lot about this body actually."

"You what?" she blinked trying to follow his thought process. Was he talking about mating? As in babies? With her?!

"So many emotions, you humans are full of hormones and emotions and urges that Timelords don't have. Well, we do have them but not often and it's not really talked about but this body, this body is different." He explained.

"Because you have feelings?" She asked.

"Oh I've always had more feelings than most of my people but hormones, urgh I've never had such erratic hormones as I have as me now. Even the equipment is full of hormones." He said, waving his arms emphatically. 

"I'm sorry?!" she gaped, flushing as she tried to stop her gaze wandering to the front of his jeans where his hands had gestured.

"Oh you humans, for a race practically obsessed with sex, you don't half get all prim and proper about it sometimes. Sex Rose, our kind didn't need it because they could use looms of our dna patterns to make children. I can’t do that with no other Timelords, so now my body is making itself compatible to mate with humans." He explained. 

"Oh my god..." She mouthed, covering her face with her hand. Part of her was leaping for joy at the idea of finding out exactly how compatible he was but the majority of her was just embarrassed at the conversation. Somehow the science behind it made it much less sexy.

"Can I put my jeans back on now?" She asked, interrupting his current thought process.

"Oh, sorry." He said turning his attention back to her. "One more peek."

He moved to kneel again, brushing the material aside to look at his name across her pale skin. 

"My Rose..." He murmured to himself. Stroking his cool fingers across her skin.

"Does that mean you're my doctor?" She asked him.

"I'm still a Timelord Rose. I may be compatible but I'm not truly human. I'll never be able to spend the rest of my life with you." He told her seriously. 

"But I can spend the rest of mine with you." She said softly. "This mark means something. Even if we aren't quite like human Soulmates, it means I was meant to meet you. I was meant to be here, with you on the Tardis." 

"Yes Rose, that is exactly what it means." He nodded, moving up to hug her to him. "No matter what else it means for us, it means you are meant to be here, with me."

"Better with two yeah?" She asked.

"Better with two." He agreed, pressing a kiss into her hair.


End file.
